Conventionally, depending on the location where a wire harness is installed, there is demand for electrical lines or the like to be protected from metal edges and the like of the vehicle body, and a protector is attached to the wire harness trunk line. There are various methods for attaching a protector to a wire harness trunk line (e.g., see JP 2015-82955A and JP 2015-80293A, which are hereinafter respectively called Patent Documents 1 and 2).
FIGS. 7a-7c are diagrams showing a protector that is the same as the protector in FIG. 3 disclosed in Patent Document 1, which is conventional technology. A protector 30 in this figure includes a sheet-shaped resin substrate 36 that is partitioned into four rectangular surface portions 32 to 35 in the width direction by three folding lines 31. A group of electrical lines 38 that is partially bound at multiple locations using pieces of adhesive tape 37 is placed on, out of the four surface portions 32 to 35, the surface portion 33 whose two end portions are tape fixing portions 33a that are longer than the two end portions of the other surface portions. The tape fixing portions 33a at the two ends of the surface portion 33 are fixed to the group of electrical lines 38 using pieces of adhesive tape 39, the remaining three surface portions 32, 34, and 35 are folded at the folding lines 31 so as to form a quadrangular tube shape, and lastly, adhesive tape (not shown) is loosely wrapped around the protector to maintain the quadrangular tube shape.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a protector that is the same as the protector in FIG. 1 disclosed in Patent Document 2, which is conventional technology. A protector 40 in this figure includes a protector main body 41, which has a groove-shaped recessed portion in which a group of electrical lines is accommodated and tape fixing portions at the two ends of the recessed portion, a cover portion 43 connected to one side of the open side of the protector main body 41 via a hinge portion 42, and lock means 140 that are provided as pairs of male and female members on the protector main body 41 and the cover portion 43 and that lock when the cover portion 43 is closed.
However, the protectors disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 have problems such as the following.
The protector 30 disclosed in Patent Document 1 uses a sheet-shaped resin substrate 36, and therefore the resin substrates 36 can be stored in a stacked state after blank layout and molding, but it is necessary to perform human labor steps of folding the three surface portions 32, 34, and 35 at the folding lines 31 to form a quadrangular tube shape, and then loosely wrapping adhesive tape around the protector to maintain the quadrangular tube shape.
On the other hand, according to the protector 40 disclosed in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to perform human labor steps for closing the cover portion 43 and locking the lock means 140 provided as pairs of male and female members. Also, the protector 40 disclosed in Patent Document 2 is an extrusion-molded body, requires a mold, and is a three-dimensional object rather than being sheet-shaped, and therefore a large space is required for storage between being manufactured as an extrusion-molded body and being attached to electrical lines.
The present design has been achieved in light of the situation described above, and an object thereof is to provide a protector and a wire harness according to which, if human labor is used to place a partially bound group of electrical lines on a flat plate-shaped protector and then wrap tape around the group of electrical lines and tape fixing portions provided on the protector, it is possible to thereafter enclose and protect the group of electrical lines without depending on human labor.